Sweet home Alabama?

Birmingham City Council has apologised for sending out 720,000 recycling leaflets showing a photograph of Birmingham, Alabama, instead of Birmingham, England.

The council spent £15,000 showing the skyline of the US city instead of showing landmarks such as the Bullring shopping centre.

The leaflet was meant to thank residents for helping the city achieve its 2007-2008 recycling target early.

But underneath the heading Thank you Birmingham!, it showed a photo of the southern US city. A Birmingham Council spokesman said: Birmingham is immensely proud of its recycling record and this leaflet has helped to get the recycling message across to thousands of our enthusiastic citizens over the last 15 months.

We accept that the wrong photo was used, but the text and detail contained in the leaflet is wholly correct which is the most important message.

He said that 719,999 residents were happy with the leaflet, because only one resident complained about the error. There are no plans to reprint the leaflet.

Have your say

Please remember that the submission of any material is governed by our Terms and Conditions and by submitting material you confirm your agreement to these Terms and Conditions. Links may be included in your comments but HTML is not permitted.

Materials Recycling World provides...

...recycling and waste management news, key market reports, data and trends from across the industry.

Read by everyone in the recycling and waste management market to recycling officers in local authorities, new and more established recycling and waste management businesses, as well as those looking into the sector